My teaching philosophy is structured as a pyramid; at the top is the goal "Students will be glad they took this class, and will tell others to take it" and supporting that are the reasons,
they have been treated fairly and respectfully
they have learned to both ask and answer questions
they have learned to work with other people to achieve shared goals, showing mutual respect
they have learned something of how the natural world works
they have learned methods that we can use to extend that knowledge
Science for All
I think Science education for all is important, just as English and History are important, as knowledge that every student has a right to learn to enrich their lives. Science, like Music and Art, and Sports, can be better appreciated as "nicely done" when you know something about them.
I also think Science education can develop habits of mind of curiosity, diligince and critical thinking that will be useful in every path in life. The satisfaction of putting in the effort and finally "getting it" is also a habit that can carry over to other fields.
Of course I hope that in some cases Science education will strike a spark that leads to a deeper interest and a career, and I would like to be a teacher that sometimes helps that to happen, and certainly not be a teacher that kills an interest.
Assessment
Assessment is important for several reasons, grades being the least of them. Frequent "low stakes" assessment is better than less frequent "high stakes" testing.
It lets the teacher know what has been learned and what has not been, and by who. This keeps small problems from becoming big ones.
It minimizes the harm done by having a bad day, important since grades are one result of assessment.
It minimizes test anxiety, which often has an effect on test performance.
It establishes quality checking as part of the normal routine, a good habit in all areas.
That said, high-stakes standardized tests are part of the landscape, and teachers must consider how they will affect their practices.
You cannot, and do not have to "teach to the test" because the standards are so broadly written that they are not a curriculum.
You may be given a text and accompanying material published as "aligned to the standards" and should be open-minded about using them, but don't be afraid to depart from them to add material that will engage and benefit your students.
Remember that the best preparation for the unexpected is -- the unexpected.
Do use the Scantron "fill in the dot" format for some of your classroom assessments, both to get the kids used to them, and to help you see the content area the way a test creator has to see it. Inexpensive software such as Form Return lets you create, print, and score these tests on any PC and printer.
Explain to your students that the people writing standardized tests may themselves lack the Depth of Knowledge to write challenging questions, so they resort to writing tricky ones instead. You can make this a game: Keep your eyes open for the tricks! You are smarter than that!
Labs and Hands-On Learning
Labs are an important part of Science education. Students not only learn to sett up a controlled situation, and perform measurements, they learn that taking measurements is often harder than expected.
I prefer Lab groups (and class work groups) to be arranged by the teacher, not self-selected. This avoids potential problems and also allows students with special needs to be paired with students who can and will help them.
I like doing the lab first, and then following it with analysis and discussion. The lab gets the class off to a good start, and when you come to the lecture they have some idea what you are talking about.
Student Scientific Inquiry
While a "traditional" lab exercise is designed to demonstrate a known principal, and perhaps measure some known physical constant, an inquiry exercise is designed to also provide opportunity for students to ask further questions, and attempt to answer them.
I favor a "guided inquiry" approach in which useful lines of questioning are provided to help the students get started.
Every lesson (on any subject) offers the instructor one or more of these starting points.
In brief, a traditional excercise is extended by stating the purpose or question in a way that also invites further questions, and providing the time and resources to attempt further experiments that can help answer them.
The following check list suggests one way to do this:
Collect data
Communicate understanding & ideas
Design, conduct, & critique investigations
Represent, analyze, & interpret data
Experimental design
Observe
Predict
Question and hypothesize
Use evidence to draw conclusions
Use tools, & techniques
About the Mathematical Nature of Science and Differentiating Instruction
Students readily understand, and can confirm by experiment, the essential points of a scientific concept. But the exact relationships of how some variables determine what they observe for others is often far from obvious.
There is of course a mathematical treatment that reveals more of the process, but it is often considered "too hard" and omitted, limiting what can be learned.
A central concept of Algebra is the function or equation relating one variable to another, usually taught in abstract terms of "X" and "Y" with no connection to real world use. A related concept is drawing a graph to visuallly represent the same relation. Students are taught how to work between an equation and a graph, but again with no connection to real world use. The most frequently asked Algebra question is "why must we learn this?" And the most ferquent answer is a contrived word problem involving how much carpet is needed to cover a certain floor.
To address these problems, I would like to explain each topic three ways, in parallel
Coceptually, with little or no mathematics
with Algebra
with Calculus
Explanations with and without mathematics offers differentiation in a way that is fair to all students. I think it could be a good and (nearly) painless way to build up math application skills in students that don't yet have them, even after many years of math instruction.
But I have not done that, yet. I'm sure I will find it harder than I expected.
The Classroom
Looking at the teacher's role in a classroom as a leader of a group, their job is to get everyone working effectively toward their goal. Although the teacher is given this position of authority, I believe that to be effective they must earn it every day, by having the knowledge, and making fair and effective decisions.
A teacher must develop their own style of classroom management, establish rules and expectations for both behavior and achievement, engage and hold student interest, model effective work habits, provide feedback and motivation, and somehow reach the unmotivated.
I have had the advantage of not only course work and observation but also a couple of years of experience substitute teaching.
Routines
I have seen established routines eliminate the time wasting and opportunities for deliberate disruption from several common activities. Boxes and folders are provided for homework in and out, while an area on the bulletin board lists all assignments and milestones, past, present, future. Two bathroom passes are hanging by the door, and may be used without asking. If they are out, you wait for their return. Pencils, paper, and other supplies are kept available for those who did not bring their own. These help the regular teacher, and as "policy implemented in hardware" they are a great help for subs. Both my observations, and some classes I have worked in do these things.
In many classes, the homework and other assignments are also listed on a class website, available to the students and to their parents, keeping them in the loop if they care to be.
Behavior
Although both my observation teachers have classes at several ability levels, and some students with less interest, the classes are all remarkably free of disruptive behavior, I think because it is never given the chance to begin. Both teacher start the class while students are still walking in and taking their seats, and there is no dead air for the entire period. Both include a lot of questions in their lectures, both as a means of checking comprehension and keeping students on their toes. Both also walk around, delivering their questions right to the students, but always ready to help if they need help. This willingness to help is key to the good relation between teacher and students; I have not seen and do not expect to see, either teacher criticize a student for "still not getting" some concept.
I have been in some other classes that were remarkably smooth running, free of the disturbances that others have reported. I asked one teacher how they did it. He told me that those behaviors might be found elsewhere in the building, but not in his class, they simply were not acceptable. He added that "i don't refer students anywhere. They have me to deal with."
I discussed this with a friend who is retired military, who pointed out two things that help to keep that authority:
Make requests that make sense. They can be hard, but should be necessary.
Tell people what is needed, not how to do it.
In brief, the key point of my method is to make the class interesting to enough people that they will not want it interrupted by the class clown, and let them know it. That has been more effective than any discipline I might try to impose, certainly if the class was not interesting.
I believe that any subject can be interesting if it is presented by someone who knows it and loves it, wants to share it, and is willing to explain it in ways that people can understand. That last bit, explaining it patiently and effectively, can take a lot of work both in preparation and in class, but the rewards are worth it. This is what lets you do what you came for, deliver an education, and enjoy doing it.
Motivation and What Schools Can Do
But everything is not rosy; there are some problems the schools cause by poor practices, and can fix, and others they are blamed for that are really not of their making, but perhaps can help to fix anyway.
I have seen many kids who work hard, and expect their effort to lead to a good life, which I believe it will. But I see others who feel that no matter how hard they work, they will not get the rewards, and too often this is true for them, and we need to fix it. Others feel that no matter how little they do, someone will make it alright for them, because someone always has. They are in for a nasty awakening, and we need to fix that too.
Those problems are so big that you can start attacking them anywhere, so it might as well be in school. I'm up for it.
My Goals
My teaching philosophy is structured as a pyramid; at the top is the goal "Students will be glad they took this class, and will tell others to take it" and supporting that are the reasons,
Science for All
I think Science education for all is important, just as English and History are important, as knowledge that every student has a right to learn to enrich their lives. Science, like Music and Art, and Sports, can be better appreciated as "nicely done" when you know something about them.
I also think Science education can develop habits of mind of curiosity, diligince and critical thinking that will be useful in every path in life. The satisfaction of putting in the effort and finally "getting it" is also a habit that can carry over to other fields.
Of course I hope that in some cases Science education will strike a spark that leads to a deeper interest and a career, and I would like to be a teacher that sometimes helps that to happen, and certainly not be a teacher that kills an interest.
Assessment
Assessment is important for several reasons, grades being the least of them. Frequent "low stakes" assessment is better than less frequent "high stakes" testing.
That said, high-stakes standardized tests are part of the landscape, and teachers must consider how they will affect their practices.
Labs and Hands-On Learning
Labs are an important part of Science education. Students not only learn to sett up a controlled situation, and perform measurements, they learn that taking measurements is often harder than expected.
I prefer Lab groups (and class work groups) to be arranged by the teacher, not self-selected. This avoids potential problems and also allows students with special needs to be paired with students who can and will help them.
I like doing the lab first, and then following it with analysis and discussion. The lab gets the class off to a good start, and when you come to the lecture they have some idea what you are talking about.
Student Scientific Inquiry
While a "traditional" lab exercise is designed to demonstrate a known principal, and perhaps measure some known physical constant, an inquiry exercise is designed to also provide opportunity for students to ask further questions, and attempt to answer them.
I favor a "guided inquiry" approach in which useful lines of questioning are provided to help the students get started.
Every lesson (on any subject) offers the instructor one or more of these starting points.
In brief, a traditional excercise is extended by stating the purpose or question in a way that also invites further questions, and providing the time and resources to attempt further experiments that can help answer them.
The following check list suggests one way to do this:
About the Mathematical Nature of Science and Differentiating Instruction
Students readily understand, and can confirm by experiment, the essential points of a scientific concept. But the exact relationships of how some variables determine what they observe for others is often far from obvious.
There is of course a mathematical treatment that reveals more of the process, but it is often considered "too hard" and omitted, limiting what can be learned.
A central concept of Algebra is the function or equation relating one variable to another, usually taught in abstract terms of "X" and "Y" with no connection to real world use. A related concept is drawing a graph to visuallly represent the same relation. Students are taught how to work between an equation and a graph, but again with no connection to real world use. The most frequently asked Algebra question is "why must we learn this?" And the most ferquent answer is a contrived word problem involving how much carpet is needed to cover a certain floor.
To address these problems, I would like to explain each topic three ways, in parallel
Explanations with and without mathematics offers differentiation in a way that is fair to all students. I think it could be a good and (nearly) painless way to build up math application skills in students that don't yet have them, even after many years of math instruction.
But I have not done that, yet. I'm sure I will find it harder than I expected.
The Classroom
Looking at the teacher's role in a classroom as a leader of a group, their job is to get everyone working effectively toward their goal. Although the teacher is given this position of authority, I believe that to be effective they must earn it every day, by having the knowledge, and making fair and effective decisions.
A teacher must develop their own style of classroom management, establish rules and expectations for both behavior and achievement, engage and hold student interest, model effective work habits, provide feedback and motivation, and somehow reach the unmotivated.
I have had the advantage of not only course work and observation but also a couple of years of experience substitute teaching.
Routines
I have seen established routines eliminate the time wasting and opportunities for deliberate disruption from several common activities. Boxes and folders are provided for homework in and out, while an area on the bulletin board lists all assignments and milestones, past, present, future. Two bathroom passes are hanging by the door, and may be used without asking. If they are out, you wait for their return. Pencils, paper, and other supplies are kept available for those who did not bring their own. These help the regular teacher, and as "policy implemented in hardware" they are a great help for subs. Both my observations, and some classes I have worked in do these things.
In many classes, the homework and other assignments are also listed on a class website, available to the students and to their parents, keeping them in the loop if they care to be.
Behavior
Although both my observation teachers have classes at several ability levels, and some students with less interest, the classes are all remarkably free of disruptive behavior, I think because it is never given the chance to begin. Both teacher start the class while students are still walking in and taking their seats, and there is no dead air for the entire period. Both include a lot of questions in their lectures, both as a means of checking comprehension and keeping students on their toes. Both also walk around, delivering their questions right to the students, but always ready to help if they need help. This willingness to help is key to the good relation between teacher and students; I have not seen and do not expect to see, either teacher criticize a student for "still not getting" some concept.
I have been in some other classes that were remarkably smooth running, free of the disturbances that others have reported. I asked one teacher how they did it. He told me that those behaviors might be found elsewhere in the building, but not in his class, they simply were not acceptable. He added that "i don't refer students anywhere. They have me to deal with."
I discussed this with a friend who is retired military, who pointed out two things that help to keep that authority:
In brief, the key point of my method is to make the class interesting to enough people that they will not want it interrupted by the class clown, and let them know it. That has been more effective than any discipline I might try to impose, certainly if the class was not interesting.
I believe that any subject can be interesting if it is presented by someone who knows it and loves it, wants to share it, and is willing to explain it in ways that people can understand. That last bit, explaining it patiently and effectively, can take a lot of work both in preparation and in class, but the rewards are worth it. This is what lets you do what you came for, deliver an education, and enjoy doing it.
Motivation and What Schools Can Do
But everything is not rosy; there are some problems the schools cause by poor practices, and can fix, and others they are blamed for that are really not of their making, but perhaps can help to fix anyway.
I have seen many kids who work hard, and expect their effort to lead to a good life, which I believe it will. But I see others who feel that no matter how hard they work, they will not get the rewards, and too often this is true for them, and we need to fix it. Others feel that no matter how little they do, someone will make it alright for them, because someone always has. They are in for a nasty awakening, and we need to fix that too.
Those problems are so big that you can start attacking them anywhere, so it might as well be in school. I'm up for it.